Alex Niggeman & Rico Padice ‘Samurai Blades EP’

Tsuba celebrates 5 years of output in this first chapter of the new millenium’s second decade. With a back catalogue boasting the likes of Steve Lawler, Peace Division, The Hacker and Zoo Brazil, on paper it’s easy to not really know what to expect from the imprint.

So that this latest release ignores the tribal riddims, heavy electro or bumpy booty sounds commonly associated, respectively, with the aforementioned music makers is no surprise. Though fans of Alex Niggeman may recognise a movement away from the noises normally associated with the Berliner in Trippin‘. Here it’s less about 12am and more focused on ‘who-cares-o’ clock’, as the bar-room vibes of items in his ouevre like Take Control fall by the wayside, replaced by a warehouse flavour constructed from retrospective toms, clashing cymbals, claps, snares and synth stabs.

On the flip Rico Padice keeps things classic, with a raw, stripped four nodding at early Sneak. In similar form to the techier work from the ‘original house gangster’, here breakdowns are almost unheard of, while repetition of hook is pretty much the only defining feature. Boring? Well, perhaps a little, though there’s no denying this is one little chugger that’s bound to make itself at home for a fair while, once slipped into any self-respecting resident’s box.